SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/29/2022 10:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Principle”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
16:24
Message of the
verse: “24
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let
him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
We first want to look at the highlighted word “himself”
but only want to talk about “self” and describe what Jesus is referring to when
He uses this word. First of all Jesus is
not referring to one’s personal identity as a distinct individual. The truth confirmed in Scripture is that every
person is a unique creation of God, and the heavenly Father knows each of His children
by name. He has every believer’s name “recorded
in Heaven” as seen in Luke 10:20: “"Nevertheless
do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that
your names are recorded in heaven.’” So
what is Jesus referring to when He speaks of “self” in this verse? “The self which Jesus is speaking is rather
the natural, sinful, rebellious, unredeemed self that is at the center of every
fallen person and that can even reclaim temporary control over a Christian”
writes John MacArthur. He goes on “It is
the fleshly body, the ‘old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with
the lusts of deceit’ (Eph. 4:22).” “That,
in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which
is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.” “And is yet to be redeemed in glorification
(cf. Rom. 8:23).” “And not only this,
but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption
of our body.” “To deny that self is to
confess with Paul, ‘I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh’
(Rom.7:18). To deny that self is to have
the sincere, genuine conviction that one has nothing in his humanness to
commend himself before God, nothing worthwhile to offer Him at all.”
I have to say that this is “heavy
truth” for me, something that I certainly need to better understand as I go
through my life at this time, something that I need to remember and put to use
as I walk with the Lord. It is good to
remember that God loves me, for when I sin then because of my humanness it
seems to me that God is disappointed in me and this bothers me, but as I look
at stories from the Old Testament of believers when they sin that God still
loves them and still uses them for His glory.
I know that this is true because of my study in the 11th
chapter of Hebrews which I am teaching in my Sunday school class. In that wonderful chapter which is sometimes
called God’s Hall of Faith you never see any of the sins that these Old
Testament saints had committed because the sins that they committed are all
under the blood of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross for all who had and
will come to Him in faith.
This is all the further I want to go
in this SD as I want to think about what I have learned and have been reminded
of already.
9/29/2022 10:50
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment